Rack systems are becoming increasingly commonplace, particularly in enterprise environments. Exemplary rack systems may include multipartition servers providing enhanced processing capacity, and other shared resources (e.g., input/output or I/O, networking, and memory). A network fabric may link the servers to the shared resources so that the multipartition servers and other shared resources appear to an end-user (or simply “user”) as a single server system.
A management subsystem uses sideband signals to communicate with the server processor(s) and other system devices, (e.g., I/O controllers) and bring information to a common point accessible to the user. A management subsystem detects the presence of the processors in the multipartition server, controls power to the processors of the multipartition server, and monitors status of the processors of the multipartition server. The management subsystem can also monitor and correct functionality on other devices throughout a server environment. The hardware required for the management subsystem consumes space on the server boards and increases overall complexity, thereby increasing costs.